The term smoking material is intended to include any combustible organic material containing volatile ingredients which upon combustion are vaporized and can be drawn into the mouth and respiratory passages of a smoker. Such materials include tobacco, licorice, eucalyptus, teas, flower petals, and other herbs. Such smoking materials may be used alone or in various combinations with one another. The traditional methods of tobacco smoking are based on the combustion of the tobacco, which causes the vaporization of volatile components. The well-known disadvantage of such traditional methods of tobacco utilization is that the smoker not only inhales the desired taste and other volatile active ingredients, but also inhales the combustion by-products which are associated with cancer and diseases of the heart and lungs. Such products and by-products of combustion include carbon monoxide, benzo(a)pyrene, volatilized cadmium, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrogen sulfide, and a spectrum of heavy hydrocarbons which are either the direct result of combustion of organic material or are the result of the unnecessarily-high-temperature volatilization of ingredients in the unburned portion of the smoking material immediately adjacent to the combustion zone.
Previous inventions and methods related to the use of smoking materials have sought to eliminate the combustion products from the desirable gaseous ingredients. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,874 (Brooks et al.) discloses smoking articles that employ an electrical resistance heating element to provide a tobacco-flavored smoke or aerosol and other sensations of smoking without burning tobacco or other substances and without producing any combustion or pyrolysis products including carbon monoxide or any sidestream smoke or odor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,374 (Chard et al.) also discloses a smoking device wherein loss of nicotine to the smoker by pyrolysis and in sidestream smoke is substantially avoided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,318 (Clearman et al.) discloses a smoking article with a tobacco jacket. In several embodiments described in this patent, tobacco does not burn but still provides tobacco flavors to the aerosol delivered to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,369 (Burruss) discloses an electrical device for the noncombustion utilization of tobacco and other smoking materials. The device consists of a canister or other appropriate container within which air is electrically heated to an appropriate temperature for volatilizing the desired components of smoking material previously inserted into a receptacle provided in the mouthpiece part of the invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,153 (Kessler et al.) discloses a device that vaporizes volatile materials while avoiding combustion and denaturation of materials which provides an alternative to combustion as a means of volatilizing bioactive and flavor compounds to make such flavor compounds available for inhalation without generating toxic or carcinogenic substances that are byproducts of combustion and pyrolysis.
While the aforementioned prior art devices have solved some of the problems associated with providing a noncombustible and nonpyrolytic method for heating and inhaling the active volatile compounds and components of tobacco and of other smoking materials without the ingestion of toxic and carcinogenic compounds, there exists a need for a simple and easy method of inhaling the active volatile compounds and components of smoking materials without the ingestion of toxic and carcinogenic compounds.
More specifically, this invention teaches a smokeless pipe in the form of an elongated hollow member that includes an open stem at one end for a user to draw upon and a bulbous chamber at the opposite end that includes a plurality of vent holes spaced equidistantly which enable cool air to mix with heated air to enable the user to inhale the aromatic ingredients of the tobacco without inhaling the carcinogenic ingredients.